Strava data is pretty good, you know

Hello good friend.

Looking forward to a week of Zoom meetings? Turns out we could be putting on a VR headset sooner rather than later. I’m not sure if that is better or worse to be honest. I hope that your week involves some time away from the small screen.

In the meantime, here is a selection of specially picked stories for you.

James

How to fill the walking and cycling personal data gap

Strava is a great data source, but it has a problem. Its only for people who log their journeys all the time, and are usually fit (or trying to get fit). My good friends Caitlin Cottrill and Mark Beecroft. along with Mohammad Anwar Alattar, have attempted to supplement this data gap with a system they developed call the Public Participation Geographic Information System. It still has a problem of ensuring reliable data collection over time, but their initial study on Glasgow reveals the tool has promise as a complimentary walking and cycling data tool. One to watch I think.

Could the sounds of children playing in the street be a thing of the past?

Tim Gill considers children to be an “indicator species” of positive urban change, and how informal play in the street helps in a childs development. I happen to agree, but this paper in Regional Studies posed a hard question based on data from the US and Germany. What if the urban future was childless? There is emerging evidence that this may be the case in US cities, and that there is a strong segregation by age cohort. Could we have to fundamentally re-design streets in different neighbourhoods accordingly?

Autopilot has the Feds on it again

After being subject to previous investigations by the National Highways and Transportation Safety Administration, Tesla’s Autopilot is in trouble again. Simply, the NHTSA has discovered 11 crashes where Tesla cars in Autopilot hit emergency vehicles, and have opened a Preliminary Investigation. We are a long way from a recall, but this investigation is one to watch. The best outcome is to find faults that can be rectified so that such incidents happen much less often. The worst? I’ll leave that to your imagination.

Something interesting for today

Speaking of Strava data, one of the cooler projects they have worked on is where people stop in the Bay Area of California*. This data is as valuable as movement data – where do we make space for people to stop, sit, and take in the view?

* Take a wild guess what the favourite stop was

If you do nothing else today, do this

Check out Azarel Chamorro’s post on LinkedIn about all the Mobility as a Service and Smart City pilots in Japan. There are a lot.